AutoGuide.com: Parents Push Teens To Drive Stick to Avoid Distracted Driving

[poormans_LFA]

Well duhh...

Just when an earlier study suggested that teenagers today prefer owning smartphones and electronic devices over owning a car, a local study by news channel Sacramento News10 revealed that there is a resurgence of manual transmission automobiles for young drivers.

Worried about teen drivers texting and driving, parents have started a trend of purchasing stick shift vehicles for their teens in hopes to keep them focused on the task at hand rather than diverting their attention away from the road. The DMV also provides useful stick shift tips for first time drivers including “don’t panic.” News10 started a discussion via Facebook on the resurgence of manual transmission vehicles and viewers have responded positively. One perk stick shift owners said they enjoyed was the better fuel efficiency their vehicle can achieve.


While manual transmission vehicles have remained popular in Europe and Asia, its market in North America has shrunk to approximately 5.5 percent, a number likely made up of mostly driving enthusiasts. If the appreciation of manual transmission vehicles are rekindled within younger drivers, then not only would more Americans pay attention when they are driving, but perhaps the joy of driving might be rediscovered as well. Show your support and join other drivers in the “hang up and drive” movement here at News10.net.
[Source: News10]

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2...d-driving.html

[ryude]

While I think everyone should learn how to drive on a stick shift vehicle, I don't think it will have much impact on teenagers texting or other idiotic things they will do.

[Camouflage]

Only 5.5% of the Cars have Manual Transmission in the US?!
How is that even possible? Even my 72 Years old Grandfather drives Manual.

But i doubt that driving manualy will keep Drivers from texting or getting distractet in any other way. This might work in narrow City or a on curvy Mountain Road, but i don´t think this will work on a highway or any similar Road where the vehicle travels with a steady speed.

[Want.FR-S]

I don't know about Europe, but in Asia all I see more is automatic transmission cars rather than manual. I am wondering, for example, if someone knows the distribution of automatics vs manual in Japan/Korea/China, or in Thailand/Malaysia/Indonesia, or in India/Paki/Middle east, or even in Australia. What I saw is that in most of the cities people are driving automatics just like those people in US. Not that different.

[serialk11r]

In China it is mostly manual transmission because most people want an affordable car with good gas mileage. Auto increases fuel consumption in the city (most of driving) and adds a significant amount to the purchase price.

HOWEVER, people will buy an automatic if they can afford it. No one actually wants to drive a manual. I feel like it should be the same in most of Asia.

[Repyt]

Thats a screwed up statistic... I am going to say they meant 5.5% of new cars sold are manual. How could they possibly calculate how many stick shifts are on the road?

[meWant]

Originally Posted by Want.FR-S

I don't know about Europe, but in Asia all I see more is automatic transmission cars rather than manual. I am wondering, for example, if someone knows the distribution of automatics vs manual in Japan/Korea/China, or in Thailand/Malaysia/Indonesia, or in India/Paki/Middle east, or even in Australia. What I saw is that in most of the cities people are driving automatics just like those people in US. Not that different.

idk i mean in northern india whenever i go to see family and stuff i dont think i have ever seen anybody with an automatic car. everybody has manaul and/or a motorcycle thats where i learned to drive stick (first on a tractor, then proceeded to learn a motorcycle, and this past summer learned to drive a car stick) :happy0180::happy0180:

[Dark]

Originally Posted by meWant

idk i mean in northern india whenever i go to see family and stuff i dont think i have ever seen anybody with an automatic car. everybody has manaul and/or a motorcycle thats where i learned to drive stick (first on a tractor, then proceeded to learn a motorcycle, and this past summer learned to drive a car stick) :happy0180::happy0180:

Tractors are fun to drive, seriously.

[3scapist]

It's just too bad manual transmissions are slowly dying and making way for faster shifting manual/automatic hybrids. SMG, shiftronic, DSG, etc

[MF_DEUCE]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

In China it is mostly manual transmission because most people want an affordable car with good gas mileage. Auto increases fuel consumption in the city (most of driving) and adds a significant amount to the purchase price.

HOWEVER, people will buy an automatic if they can afford it. No one actually wants to drive a manual. I feel like it should be the same in most of Asia.

It is not THAT significant. Its about a $1.5k difference in price, and 1-3 less mpg.

[serialk11r]

It's not significant to you, but for someone who is stretching their budget to even be able to afford a basic car, the extra price means a LOT. Okay what's a really cheap car? Whatever, say it costs 10k in America, with an auto. In China with higher tax you pay probably 100k rmb, which is like 15k usd. Lower middle class earns maybe 50k a year. Do you see where this is going? If you could slash 1000 dollars from the price for an automatic transmission, that is a significant amount. When gas is the same price as in America, while your income is much lower, that extra 1 mpg means a lot. Well it's typically not just 1mpg (we're talking 40mpg average cars typically...), it could be as much as 20% with an intelligent driver. Auto boxes suck for wringing out max fuel economy.

[bryan]

Originally Posted by Camouflage

But i doubt that driving manualy will keep Drivers from texting or getting distractet in any other way. This might work in narrow City or a on curvy Mountain Road, but i don´t think this will work on a highway or any similar Road where the vehicle travels with a steady speed.

I agree. I highly doubt that a manual transmission would prevent distracted driving. If anything, it would exacerbate the problem. People would just multitask their way out of it. It would elevate distracted driving ten-fold.

Clutch, shift into first, take bite of burger, clutch, put burger down, shift into second, pick up cell phone, clutch, answer cell phone, shift into third, send a quick texty text, clutch, shift into fourth, pop in cd, brake!, shift into second, eat a fry, clutch, wait, what gear am I in?, look down to shift knob, shift into third, look up, OMG!, ahhhhhh.....oisefjshaifjasdlkfjadhgia

[#87]

Originally Posted by bryan

I agree. I highly doubt that a manual transmission would prevent distracted driving. If anything, it would exacerbate the problem. People would just multitask their way out of it. It would elevate distracted driving ten-fold.

Clutch, shift into first, take bite of burger, clutch, put burger down, shift into second, pick up cell phone, clutch, answer cell phone, shift into third, send a quick texty text, clutch, shift into fourth, pop in cd, brake!, shift into second, eat a fry, clutch, wait, what gear am I in?, look down to shift knob, shift into third, look up, OMG!, ahhhhhh.....oisefjshaifjasdlkfjadhgia

hah I was thinking this then I thought they would be too scared to do anything else because they don't want to stall and embarass themselves in front of their friends ^_^

[ZetaVI]

The thing is that this is dealing with teens. Teens always get around problems even If they know what they are doing is stupid.